Three days after its season appeared to end, the Bluffton High football team was back under the lights at Bobcat Stadium.

The South Carolina High School League upheld Monday its disqualification of Goose Creek from the state playoffs, giving the Bobcats new life.

Bluffton coaches and players watched live video of the SCHSL executive committee hearing online after school. When the committee’s decision was made, putting the Bobcats back in the playoffs, they immediately hit the practice field.

“We’re being given a second chance, so we might as well make the most of it,” senior wide receiver Marquis Webber said.

The drama may not be finished, however. Goose Creek officials planned to meet with their attorneys Monday to consider further legal options. They scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. Tuesday.

As of press time Monday night, ninth-seeded Bluffton was scheduled to visit No. 5 Northwestern at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Bluffton coach Ken Cribb said his team would try to avoid any off-field distractions as it prepared for the semifinals.

“The uncertainty is going to be on our minds,” Cribb said. “It does affect you some.”

Goose Creek was successful in its first legal battle against the SCHSL, getting a temporary restraining order from a judge in Berkeley County on Friday that allowed it to play Bluffton in the quarterfinals. The Gators, who were disqualified last week for using an ineligible player, beat the Bobcats 35-25.

In granting the restraining order, the judge ordered the SCHSL to reconsider its ruling Monday. Goose Creek and its lawyers presented new evidence, but the committee voted 14-0 to uphold its decision.

A final motion, in which the school requested “mercy” from the board to reduce the penalties, was denied by a 12-2 vote.

Goose Creek argued the player in question should be considered eligible because he spent his ninth-grade year at a group home in Simpsonville.

The student had no access to extracurricular activities at the home, they said, so his eligibility clock should have started with the 2009-2010 school year. That would have made him a fourth-year student who had not used up his eight semesters of eligibility.

Several SCHSL executive committee members said that, according to league rules, he was eligible as a freshman.

Goose Creek ruled the player eligible at the start of the football season, but an updated transcript last week showed that he was in his fifth year of high school.

Principal Jimmy Huskey reported the violation last Tuesday and SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton disqualified the school from the postseason. Huskey attributed the mixup to a clerical error that occurred at Berkeley High, the student’s previous school.

The Gators were the top seed in the Class AAAA Division II playoffs and the defending state champions. They are ranked as high as 11th in national polls.

“Not because we benefited, but I totally agree with the High School League’s ruling,” Cribb said. “Whether you meant to (violate them) or not, you’ve got to go by the rules. If you’ve got the rules, you’ve got to enforce them.”

Bluffton spent most of last week in limbo after Goose Creek was removed from the playoffs and filed a lawsuit to be reinstated. The Bobcats were preparing to host Conway, which the Gators beat in the first round, last Friday before the judge’s ruling put them on the road in the afternoon.

Even if Goose Creek continues its fight, Webber said, this week’s preparation should be a bit easier. The Bobcats only have to prepare for one team — Northwestern — this time.

“You can’t never put it out your mind, but we’re just going to practice hard all week,” Webber said. “And if a loop comes, I guess we’re just going to have to ride it whichever way it goes.”